The league wanted to make a ruling before the end of the season, but did not want to do it on New Year's.

NFL Cheerleaders: Super Bowl Edition

Yes, because New Year’s would be ruined if I knew Brett Favre had to shell out a few grand for whipping out his junk on camera. Wednesday afternoon, the NFL announced that it had fined Favre $50,000 "for his failure to cooperate with the investigation in a forthcoming manner."

It’s amazing that we had to wait until now for a judgment to come down on this stupid thing. The report about Favre surfaced on Deadspin all the way back in October, and the League spent nearly three months “investigating” the matter, which seems like an awful long time to investigate a man’s nude photos of himself. I’m not saying the League office maybe has a thing for Favre, but he’s certainly engendered the affections of thousands of middle-aged announcers the world over now, hasn’t he?

And so this story comes to an end much like Favre’s season will: It was a matter that garnered a great deal of attention, only to not have much substance to it.